MAKE BIGGER COMMISSIONS
Ryan helps auction companies look like marketing experts to their sellers by clarifying their message, communicating that message with attractive media, and measuring that media with state-of-the-art tools.

360: Is the Dunning-Kruger Effect Costing You Commission?

Over the past 20 years, social scientists have been documenting the phenomenon that those who know the least about many topics actually have the most confidence in their understanding of them. According to the Dunning-Kruger effect, not only is ignorance bliss; it’s also incredibly deceiving.

359: 6 Ways to Prevent a Midlife Crisis

I’ve been diving into the books, articles, and even YouTube videos that have made significant blips on my cultural radar. I’m learning a lot about how to reduce stress, avoid a midlife crisis, and build a legacy—how not to waste my life.

Being in the Right Place at the Right Time Isn’t Enough

If you’re trusting that being in the right place at the right time is enough, know that those pragmatic auction marketers are connecting with more and better prospects than you are.

357: The Irony that Gets in the Way of Worship

What is possible to experience and what is impossible to know should both draw us to marvel. Both should make us wonder how we got here. We should all be amazed on a regular basis.

356: Every Day is an Advertising Contest

Advertising awards affirm our actions and can even be a competitive advantage. Their importance, though, pales in comparison to the impressions that the marketplace has of our brand and its iterations. We don’t compete just against other auctioneers. We compete every day against the entire marketplace—all the different ways and places that people can buy what we’re trying to sell. Whether we like it or not, that marketplace is asking these questions. Are you?

355: The Antidote for Midlife Loneliness

Maher was describing the blessing I try not to take for granted and the responsibility my friendships often require. If you don’t have this reality in your life, you can. If you do have this luxury in your life, don’t keep it to yourself. There’s a world out there literally dying for what you have.

Facebook’s “Next Best Thing” Helps Us Little Guys

Thankfully, Facebook invented the next best thing within the past couple months. I’ve been experimenting with it on behalf of several clients, and it’s killer.

353: Tinder on Evangelical Steroids

One of my old school friends sounded exasperated. Like me, he has spent a lot of time in independent, fundamentalist Baptist institutions. Unlike me, he’s still a part of that ecosystem. That culture still puts a large emphasis on door-to-door evangelism. Participation in that guerrilla marketing is a litmus test for your commitment to Jesus and

Read More →

352: How to Know What Your Auction Advertising Budget Should Be

Click on any of the illustrations below to enlarge them. — If you read business news, you run into the term “big data” on a regular basis. I used to associate it with corporations mining our transactional histories to extract scary quantities of data for creepily-predictive advertising. After teaching part of the Auction Marketing Management course

Read More →

351: Digital Courage and the 4 Other Reasons I GoPro

Someday, I might not need courage or affirmation. Someday, I might be able to keep indelible memories only in my head. Some day, people might trust what I say. Until then, I’ll supplement my deficiencies with wearable cameras.

350: What Kind of Facebook Advertising Should You Use?

The biggest confusion I encounter when teaching people how to advertise on Facebook is the difference between an ad, a promoted post, and a boosted post. Part of that confusion comes from Facebook using similar buttons and terms to describe both. Don’t be fooled, though. These are very different tools with different purposes for savvy advertisers to use.

349: How to Build a Brand When Your Auctions Vary Greatly in Value

Most auction companies book deals with a great disparity of values. And not just in real estate. Estates, business liquidations, and farm packages come in all shapes and sizes. So do their advertising campaigns.

348: 5 Ways to Make Your Direct Mail Effective in a Digital World

It won’t surprise most of my readers that an auction company hired me to design more than 120 different postcards last year or that the people on their mailing list purchased millions of dollars’ worth of assets from them in 2016. What might surprise you is that this client mailed each postcard to less than 1% of their mailing list database—or that this same customer spent at least three times as much on Facebook per auction than they did on that very successful direct mail.

347: How My Wife Proves Both Ashanti and Saint Peter Were Right

Crystal’s also in the process of proving the Apostle Peter’s hypothetical scenario true: “Even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.”

346: Serotonin Gives Me Hat Hair

I’ll never forget that moment in my life: the sense of accomplishment, the impression of awe. Scientists have found that reflecting on life’s wins like these refuels our serotonin levels in our bodies, which helps us manage stress. Triggering those memories and what goes with them immunizes us to burnout. So, I wear these hats regularly to take me back to January 2008.

345: How I Finally Started Keeping My New Year’s Resolutions

As of right now, I’m keeping 40% more of my New Year’s resolutions than when I first got serious about my goals a decade ago. That might not sound like a lot, but my friends and family have told me that they can see real change happening in my life. I’ve gotten to this mile marker, in part, by following these five principles.

344: How to Find Unique Vacations on a Budget

I regularly get asked how I find the unique places where I vacation. My trademark response: “Give me five hours and Google, and I can find a vacation you’ve never seen.”

Everybody has the Internet, though; and everybody has five hours. Here’s my process, in case you’re looking to break your status quo.

343: Finding My Inner Beach

What I don’t know is whether or not I fell in love with the exception to the rule. I’ve been to seasides on four continents and to beaches in at least eight countries. This is the first time I’ve felt this comfortable with my feet in the sand and nothing to do. I guess I’ll have to give another beach a try to know for sure.

342: Good Books to Read Over Christmas Break

The twenty or so books I have finished so far in 2016, though, have each left an impression on me. Several have created meaningful conversations in my life and even some personal growth. I’ve listed the books below and commented on each for two reasons: (1) to remind me of my takeaways and (2) to pique your interest in the better ones.

Auction Advertising Tips from the World’s Best Beach

That’s true, whether the asset is a $3,600,000 home or a rental house, a $350,000 combine or a twenty-year-old manure spreader, Marilyn Monroe’s $4,800,000 dress or a collection of Beanie Babies. While consumers might have to be convinced of a price point, they already know whether something appeals to them or not.